Synergy is a design for an affordable, cold-climate Passive House by Tim Eian of TE Studio, the firm behind the first Passive House in Wisconsin. Eian says Synergy is “a beacon for the 21st century renaissance of residential high-performance design.” In other words, this is a home for everyone: it’s traditional, comfortable, light-filled, and attainable.

As you probably already know, a Passive House (or Passivhaus in some circles) is a building that’s certified to aggressive levels of airtightness, annual heating and cooling efficiency, and annual primary energy efficiency.

Synergy would use 90% less heating energy and and 75% less total energy than a typical home and could be built for about $250,000. Moreover, the two-level, 1,700 square-foot home would have a projected monthly energy cost of $55 in year one.

The benefit to building a home like this is — once constructed — a homeowner wouldn’t need much of an investment in on-site renewable energy to approach net-zero energy or carbon neutrality. That is, the more energy efficient the home, the less energy producing the home needs to be.

TE Studio is currently looking for implementers of this design, so feel free to click the link below to get more information.